WEEI Afternoons: Jonathan Jones joins the show

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00:00And joining us right now is Patriots defensive back Jonathan Jones, who's brought to you by Drains by James,

00:05Eastern Mass' leader in residential and commercial drain cleaning and pipelining at Drains by James.

00:09They give a poop about your pipes. Mr. Jones, how are we doing today?

00:13How's it going? How's it going?

00:15Going pretty good. Let's go ahead and jump right in. That was a tough loss yesterday, obviously.

00:20It was a bit of an up-and-down game for you as there was the Cooper Cup play on that zero blitz.

00:26Let's start there. Unfortunately, we'll get the bad stuff out of the way first.

00:29On that play, you knew everybody was blitzing. Were you expecting them maybe to get to Stafford

00:34a little bit quicker and that you wouldn't have to cover for that long?

00:38No. It wasn't a true all-out max blitz. It's kind of one of our simulated blitzes.

00:45It's kind of more for when they're in their tight splits and

00:49hopefully you can get some simulated pressure that way. At the end of the day,

00:53our job is to cover. They made a heck of a pass, heck of a throw down the seam,

00:58and I didn't make the play.

01:00You went to Twitter to say, I owe NEP better than today. Keep grinding.

01:05Why did you feel the need to do that? I'm sure you've had good games, bad games before.

01:09What made you go to Twitter yesterday?

01:12Just accountability, just in the sense of you're always bad games and good games.

01:19I just pride myself on trying to take accountability. If I'm going to be the guy

01:24to speak in front of the team, I'm going to be the first to tell you when I mess up and when I do

01:27my wrongs. I felt like that was something that needed to be done. What adjustments did you guys

01:32make after a tough second quarter there going into the half? I know obviously that big play

01:37happened in the start of the third quarter, but what was sort of emphasized at halftime

01:40to take away some of those weapons that the Rams have?

01:45It really wasn't a lot of what they were doing or any adjustments. It just came down to us being

01:54able to stop the run early to get them in the automatic drop-back situations. In that offense,

01:58when they can kind of stay on schedule and do what they want, it makes it hard to defend.

02:04I felt like as a team, we fought through the adversity through the second and third quarter.

02:09It was an opportunity to win the game in the fourth quarter.

02:15We always talk about adjustments and we put it on coordinators, but as a player who's actually

02:20out there and seeing it, feeling it, living it, how much of a voice do you have to go to the

02:25sideline, ask for adjustments, and how open are Gerard and Demarcus Covington to whatever you

02:31might share with them in that area? Definitely. I think me being here and

02:36playing in this defense for a while, they definitely take my opinion and anything that

02:41I'm seeing in the inside that I can give them or any player that has the trust of the coaches

02:46around. They're always willing. If we see something out there that they can't see or

02:50they don't see on the iPad pictures, they trust us. They trust us to come to the sidelines,

02:55give them an honest representation of what we're seeing out there to do anything to help us win.

03:01I told you I'd get to the good stuff now. That play at the end on Nakua,

03:05he gets the ball, you're running towards him, you do a great punch out there. What did you see on

03:08that play and did anything that Nakua was doing earlier in the game give you an indication that,

03:13hey, I can knock this ball out? No. It's kind of like I said. They don't

03:19line up very often in wide splits and just let you play man to man against their guys.

03:24It's not their forte. They're not going to win. They won't win a lot of one-on-one matchups that

03:29way. They kind of did the same split out earlier and ran a slant with them. They tried to set it

03:34up later in the game on a double move, same formation, kind of split him out and try to

03:39fake a double move, but that's not their area forte. That's why they don't do that 90% of the

03:45time. It's just lining their guys up and trying to make one-on-one plays.

03:48Why do you think we've seen tackling be so inconsistent this year? There's been great

03:52games. The opener was an example. You guys were phenomenal tackling. Then there's been some other

03:56games like yesterday where it's been a bit of an issue. Why do you think it's been so inconsistent

04:00all year? I think it comes down to first being in the right fit, being in the right place at the

04:07right time, knowing where your help is within the defense, and getting all 11 guys to be in the right

04:13place at the right time. It makes tackling a little bit easier. I'm trying to make wide-open

04:18tackles in open field and open space. It's difficult for anybody in the NFL. It just comes

04:24with guys being in the right place at the right time. Game tackling, having two or three guys

04:29around the ball will make tackling a lot better when you're able to do that. With some of the

04:34game planning we saw early on, Gonzalez coming in for blitzes. I think he got to Stafford

04:39once or twice. Is that something that you guys have been working on a lot this week? Is it

04:43something you plan on mixing in more as the season goes on? I think it's always been in the game

04:49plan. We've actually kind of called it a few times. Sometimes an offense will give a set

04:54to where we have to check out of certain calls. It was just able to keep it on and run the

05:00blitz and have them try to get in there and make a disruptive play. It's something we've had in the

05:05defense. We'll continue to throw that in there. Eventually, it'll hit. One thing we grew accustomed

05:12to over the years for you guys as a defense was sort of taking away an opponent's strength,

05:16making them beat you in different ways. This was a game where a layman would look at it and say,

05:21well, they pretty much only throw to Nakua and Kup, and they were able to throw to Nakua and

05:25Kup. Does that add to the frustration or disappointment that you kind of knew how

05:29they were going to try to beat you, and they still were able to beat you that way?

05:33Yeah, like I said, they have a good scheme with those guys and finding ways to send them in

05:39motions and getting them in bunch formations and just unique ways of getting them open.

05:48We definitely thought of ourselves as playing good ball versus an elite receiver, but I wouldn't

05:53say they had a quote-unquote number one receiver. They have two really, really good receivers that

05:59can move around inside, outside, and line up pretty much anywhere. When you have guys like

06:03that, it makes it a little harder to take away as opposed to in previous years with DeAndre Hopkins,

06:09who's outside at number one 90% of the game. It makes it a little easier to take away.

06:14We're talking with Jonathan Jones, defensive back for the Patriots. Jonathan, Christian

06:18Barmore, I know he didn't play a lot, but what did he sort of bring to the defense having him

06:22back out there? What did you sort of notice about his plays in the sets that he was in

06:27during the game? Yeah, I mean, just getting him back helps. Just having more bodies up front to

06:34help us run and run stopping, converting the pass. It's kind of his forte is just being an inside guy

06:41that can stop the run and play action plays, being able to convert and getting pressure on

06:45the quarterback. And so as he continues to build up a snap count, he's just going to do nothing

06:51but help us more and more. You have a number of young receivers on this team that are, I think,

06:55scuffling, still finding their way, learning, whatever you want to call it. And I'm wondering,

06:59as a defensive player who goes against those guys a lot in practice and a team leader,

07:04do you sort of cross that aisle, so to speak? Do you give a lot of advice to maybe rookie

07:08receivers, young players on the offensive side of the ball when you see the need?

07:14I try to as much as I can. Receivers, it's a unique position in the NFL. There are not too

07:20many receiver rooms who are set in stone of guys who are going to come out, be number one guys.

07:26And so we have a lot of guys who are trying to find their way, find their way in this league and

07:30make plays and show that they're dependable, not only to their teammates on offense, to the

07:35quarterback, to their coaches, and to themselves. And so those guys are continuing to work. They're

07:40going to continue to work and continue to get better. Got the Miami Dolphins coming up. You

07:44already played them once this year. Snoop Huntley was a quarterback, so that's a little bit different

07:47than Tua, who is now back there calling signals for them. What did you sort of learn from that

07:52first matchup? It's a team you're familiar enough with, I would say, but what did you learn from that

07:56first matchup with them this year that you can take into this game on Sunday?

08:00Yeah, like you said, the big thing is going to be different is just them having Tua back. And so

08:05there's a lot more in their offense that they have a timing built in and have the ability to do with

08:10him being back at quarterback. They're going to implement, you know, in their offense and they're

08:14just getting guys going. John knew he was getting going for them. They're using him a lot more.

08:19So a big test, the same kind of offenses last week where guys are in motion a lot,

08:24going to be a lot of movement, something they've always done. And so we just got to go out and make

08:29plays. You mentioned the Rams not having a true number one, and it seems like the trend in the

08:33NFL, a lot of these teams, the Bengals, the Eagles, the Dolphins you'll face this week,

08:38do have kind of that tandem where it's like Waddles or Hill, they both could be number ones.

08:42How much more does that challenge a defense compared to what you were just talking about?

08:46Sort of the old school, Randy Moss is the number one, you stop him kind of thing. How much of a

08:51bigger challenge is it with these two receiver tandems?

08:55Oh, I would say a lot, you know, especially when they move guys around. You can't just

08:59go into a game plan in the week and say, well, hey, this guy's going to be right here.

09:03Because who knows where they're going to put him? You know, Tyreke Waddle, you know, one week,

09:08he might be in the formation on this scheme that you watch on film, and then the next week in a

09:13totally different place. And so when you have those guys who are interchangeable, you know,

09:17on the offense, it definitely makes it harder for defenses.

09:20What is, when you think Mike McDaniel in this Dolphins offense,

09:23what do you think the sort of core characteristics are of it?

09:28Just a lot of eye candy. You know, they do a good job of moving guys around pre-snap,

09:33post-snap to try to change gaps. So you're not just lining up on defense and, you know,

09:37playing a call, you know, you're making adjustments within, you know, within the play,

09:42you know, as it's going on pre-snap, you know, a guy will go in motion and doing the ball snap.

09:47They do a lot of good things with the timing, the timing of their motions, getting guys vertical out

09:52of the motions. You know, as most teams, a guy who goes in motion, he's either going horizontal

09:56across the ball or something short. And so they do a good job of timing that up and having the

10:01guy who's going in motion also be a vertical threat.

10:03That is the voice of Jonathan Jones, defensive back for the Patriots. Jonathan,

10:06thanks so much for the time and good luck this weekend against Miami.

10:10Thank you, guys. You have a good one.

10:11All right, this is Jon Jones joining us here on WEI Afternoons.

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